Qualitative Methods and Methodology in Evaluation Research

The variety of methods and methodological strategies of how evaluation research had to be pursued has dramatically changed in the mid 1990s and has established a new qualitative-interpretive methodological perspective since then. The concept of an qualitative evaluation research can be based on a well-grounded empirical analysis of different fields of experience and activity of the various participating shareholders in an evaluation process. This article deals with the influences and challenges which are rooted in this paradigmatical shift. In doing so methods and techniques of qualitative social research will help to draw conclusions on the significance of the reconstruction of reality and the symbolic representation of the individual and institutional practice which is experienced, remembered, and narrated by the participants during an evaluation process.

Publications: Arnold, M. (2005): Von der Evaluation zur Evaluationsforschung. Perspektiven der qualitativen Sozialforschung. In: SIETAR Journal 11 (2), 11-14.